Guest Jess and the gang talk about all things Doctor Who, including the good doctor's Canadian connections. Download Podcast Whose Doctor?: The Doctor's Canadian Heritage J.M. Frey Ryerson and York Universities; Toronto, Canada Sydney Cecil Newman, a Canadian-born film and television producer came into the BBC as Head of Drama in December of 1962. He, among many other talents, was one of the founding fathers of the great British SciFi legacy Doctor Who. Today, a percentage of Canadian taxpayer money funds production of Russell T. Davis' new Doctor Who series. In the 2006 episode "Army of Ghosts", Yvonne Hartman, head of the Torchwood Institute, explains to Jackie Tyler that Torchwood exists to protect Queen, Country, and the British Empire. "There isn't a British Empire," Jackie protests. To which Hartman replies, "Not yet." So, then, if a Canadian helped put the dream on the screen, and Canadian money pays for it, and Canada is apparently still a part of the Empire, where is the Canadian talent? None of the current actors, techies, writers, or producers on BBC's most legendary and hottest SciFi series is noticeably Canadian, and the Doctor never graces North America's shores except to tour New (New x 15) York. This essay investigates the toque-clad history of Who, the notions of colonialism that the new Who investigates, and explores how it would be a benefit for everyone on both sides of the pond if the there was a little more maple syrup in the Doctor's tea. Who is Sydney Newman? Canadian Sydney Newman was the producer in charge of the BBC's Drama Department when he was informed that a program had to be created for the teatime slot. Newman decided on a family-oriented program that would lure in people still watching after the football scores had been announced, and to get those tuning in for the pop music to do so earlier. This program, he decided, should be educational, but painlessly so, entertaining but with high moral standards, should reflect contemporary issues and ethics, should dramatise history, make science fun and fascinating, speculate on the future of human society, and evolve with the television technology as it became available. This program became Doctor Who, a series about a "crotchety old man at least 745 years old". Newman was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1917 and worked his way up through the ranks at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before moving onto the role of supervising producer of Drama at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1950s. Granada, at the time the "most innovative of British commercial television networks" imported Newman to spice up their programming in 1958 .Newman then transferred to the ABC, the Associated British Corporation, an offshoot of ITV, with whom he produced the wildly popular Armchair Theatre and The Avengers. And then, rumour has it, he was offered the role of Head of Drama at the BBC in 1962 while drinking in a pub. Airing for the first time the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Doctor Who became and international phenomenon, the longest running science fiction serial in the history of television, and made words like 'TARDIS' a household name in nations all over the world. Newman returned to Canada in 1970 to run the National Film Board and on October 6, 1986 he was asked for advice by then-Controller of BBC 1 Micheal Grade on how to reenervate the then-lagging Doctor Who. Newman asked to be put back in control of the series as Executive Producer, but the subsequent meeting with the BBC Head of Drama Johnathan Powell did not go well, and Newman withdrew. Newman also requested to have his name added to the series credits awknolwedging him as the creator, but was denied by Acting Head of Series & Serials Ken Riddington, who stated that "Heads of Department who originate programmes have to be satisfied with the other rewards that flow from doing so". Despite the gregarious relationship between the CBC and the BBC and the consistant swapping of writers and producers, only three more Canadians followed in Newman's footsteps and held influential roles on the show: Hartnell-era writer John Lucratti, Troughton-era script editor-turned-writer Gerry Davis, and McCoy-era script editor Andrew Cartmel.. Only Lucratti, unsucessfully, pitched a Canadian-set story. Newman was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada in 1991, and passed away in Toronto in 1997. Unbeknownst to Newman, he did later get his creator's credit: in the 2007 episode 'Human Nature' by Paul Cornell, the Doctor, as John Smith, tells Nurse Joan Redfern that his father's name was Sydney. Canadian Taxpayer Funds and CBC as Co-Producer When Russell T. Davis sought to relaunch the Doctor Who franchise in 2004, the CBC provided him with funding in order to produce the program. The amount, approximately $1.3 million Canadian per season (Burk, interview 2; CBC), was sufficient to earn the CBC a co-production credit for the first to third seasons. The fourth season was not funded by the CBC. The money provided annually to the CBC comes from their own internal revenue and the taxpayers of Canada, and each Canadian taxpayer imparted approximately $0.06 towards the show per season. For the first season, the CBC oversaw a huge and successful advertising drive on the program's behalf, however, the program slipped quickly into obscurity. Episodes began to be aired at new times with no advertising to indicate the time slot change, with episodes missing from the line up or shown out of order, and by third season almost all advertising had ceased and the airing dates were so far behind the BBC that even the American Broadcasting companies for whom the program was merely an acquisition had aired episodes before the CBC. Eventually the CBC did begin airing the fourth season; September 9th, 2008, yet they have failed to air the cross-season episode "Voyage of the Damned" to date. Any inquiries from viewers into this new behaviour is met with silence or with the response that Doctor Who is an acquisition, not a co-production, and therefore no special attention to the program is obligated. In mismanaging the property the CBC is actively alienating its Canadian fanbase. This mismanagement goes so far that when Doctor Who won a Constellation Award, a Canadian sci-fi award for excellence, for its contribution to Canadian Science Fiction in both 2007 and 2008, the CBC failed to send a representative to either ceremony – even though actor John Barrowman was in the city at the time under contract to the CBC for the Canadian version of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? – and then failed to send the trophies to the appropriate persons in the BBC, instead forwarding them to BBC Worldwide where they vanished. Where does the Doctor Go? As the Doctor is half-Canadian, and a portion of Davies' funding came from Canada, it seems a fair assumption that at least one setting in one serial would see the Doctor scaling the Rocky Mountains, or skating on the Rideau Canal, or eating Beaver Tails with a Bonhomme du Neige. Not so. In fact, the Doctor has never once visited Canada in all of his nine hundred and four years of temporal and spatial wanderings. In the new series, Canada is never once visited, spoken of, or even shown in the program. In fact, there are only six mentions or references of Canada in the Classic series (see appendix 3), and in Sarah Jane Adventures, a program that does not receive funding from the CBC, there is an Ontario licence plate mounted on the wall of her attic lab (Di Rocco). Yet, in all of my New Who watching I have found just one solid mention of Canada. In David Tennant's second appearance on the talk show The Friday Night Project, the first question in a quiz show portion that Tennant had to answer was: "What French Canadian superstar turned forty this week?" The answer, of course, was Celine Dion (because what other French Canadian superstar is there?) (FNP). The Torchwood Institute is also selfish. If Torchwood serves the British Empire, then where is Torchwood: Quebec City? Or for that matter, Torchwood: Hong Kong, Torchwood: Sydney, and Torchwood: Johannesburg? Hartman's words give the impression that the colonies are only part of the Empire so much as they're property to be collected, a place from which to take tax money and pillage natural resources, and add yet another jewel in the Regina Gloriana's crown. The Colonies are not, however, as far as extending the protection of Torchwood to areas outside of Great Britain, worth protecting from their own 'phantasmahoojits'. What Good Would Including Canada Do? One way to dispel the lingering Imperialism of the Torchwood Institute is to send either Torchwood or Doctor Who to Canada. A series or episode serial based in the Land of the Maple Leaf would not only burst the remaining colonialist stereotypes of the country, but also pay homage to Newman, reward the North American fans such as the Doctor Who Information Network whose tireless work to get Doctor Who on the air in Canada is partially the reason the CBC is even airing the current episodes, force the CBC the to strengthen its ties to the program, and repay the tax dollars Canadians have invested in the series. The CBC could invest more money or employees, making the program an official Canadian Content property. Or how about a Canadian Companion? There's already been Peri, an American companion; why not a Canuck? Or is the Doctor, as Newman's avatar, the surrogate Canadian? The program could also fall back on Newman's other artistic aims and give new talents a chance to expand their portfolios and experiment in professional broadcasting by establishing a sort of exchange program between the CBC and the BBC; CBC Film School students could spend semesters working for the program, or Canadian writers could be hired to create new episodes for the upcoming seasons. Canadian actors could be hired to play characters on the program. Just like I, a Canadian, have trouble telling the difference between an Epping and a Newcastle accent, so I'm sure British audiences aren't quite as versed in the nuances between Midwestern North American and Northern Ontarian accents. But when I listened to Grey Harkness, I cringed. Jonathan Barrowman, and James Marsters are the only actors to get the accent right, so far, and for obvious reasons. Hit hard first by the SARS virus, then Mad Cow Disease, The West Nile Virus, and the Eastern Seaboard going black, Toronto's tourism industry has been floundering dangerously in the last decade. While Canada's dollar surpassing the American dollar is good for the economy in some aspects, it's made it too expensive to film in Canada. Vancouver has the set up for studios, and is the home of most of Canada's talent and crews, so crews have relocated. The loss has been milder out on the west coast of Canada, but the lack of film money coming into Toronto has just compounded an already shaky economic situation. Filming episodes, or even a new serial in Toronto specifically, but other areas of Canada beyond Vancouver would boost film and fan tourism in those areas and in the country on the whole, just as the New Who and Torchwood have done for Cardiff.